Category Archives: Innovation

Carol Hogan may be the most significant unsung hero in the history of triathlon. Her photo of Julie Moss struggling to crawl toward the finish line in the 1982 Ironman World Championship in Kona, now on the cover of Julie’s just-released memoir Crawl of Fame, is one of the most iconic photographs in sports history. It is no exaggeration that it is triathlon’s version of the World War II Iwo Jima flag-raising photo — only Carol’s shot was raw and real, unlike the late Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima photo, which was staged (in the original flag-raising photo, a Marine fire squad was under attack atop Mt. Suribachi).

Carol Hogan’s photograph of Julie Moss crawling across the finish line at the 1982 Ironman became a major trigger to an ensuing avalanche of media and “Wide World of Sports” coverage that elevated Julie, the Ironman, and endurance sports & fitness to global status almost overnight. We’ve been riding the wave since.

The photo captured an excruciating moment – the epitome of “Agony of Defeat,” to coin the saying from Wide World of Sports, which televised the race. It also helped fuel triathlon’s rapid ascension from a fringe extreme sport to a global participatory sport following the 1982 Ironman. Thirty-six years later, the photo – and the others Carol fired off during that indelible moment no one on-site will ever forget – stands as a historic symbol of perseverance, courage, and finishing what you start at all costs. The Spirit of Triathlon.

With Crawl of Fame drawing early praise and a lot of attention, ranking #6 on the Amazon Health/Fitness bestseller list (thank you, everyone!), Julie and I asked Carol to share her thoughts of the photo, and its significance in a very full life that has included competing in triathlon herself, promoting triathlons and Triple Crown of Surfing events through her Ocean Promotion firm (which is how I met and worked with her, in the mid- and late 1980s), and crafting a fine journalism and PR career.

It’s been 36 years since Carol Hogan shot one of sport’s most iconic photographs – Julie Moss beginning her crawl to the 1982 Ironman finish line, from which “Crawl of Fame” gets its name… and its story

Now, the circle closes. On Thursday at Kona Stories bookshop in Kona, Carol Hogan and Julie Moss will see each other for the first time since Carol shot those mesmerizing photos 36 years ago. I can only guess how Carol feels, but I know how Julie feels — she’s ecstatic. It will be one of those reunion experiences you can’t make up.

Here is Carol’s account, which is as much of a treasure as she has been to triathlon and ocean sports over the past four decades:

Thoughts about the Julie Moss photo and the Ironman Triathlon

By Carol Hogan

In January 1980, I was the outdoor reporter for The Honolulu Advertiser, one of only two women working in their sports department. The other covered golf and volleyball, so I was assigned to cover the “nutty Ironman Triathalon (sic).” The newspaper files had two or three post-race write-ups –– that was it. To get more information, I visited with race director Valerie Silk in Ironman’s small office headquarters and attended the pre-race meeting. Even then, it was difficult to comprehend how complicated racing an Ironman truly was.

(At the time, my husband Bob and I were training and racing with Oahu’s “The Bike Club” at Kapiolani Park. I knew about bike racing. I once won the Oahu Women’s Veteran class by default, the only entrant in the division.)

The weather was a prime factor and race day, January 10, 1980. Dangerously stormy, it forced race officials to move the 2.4-mile swim from its original Waikiki Open Ocean Swim course to the safer waters of Ala Moana Park lagoon.

Bob and I lived nearby on our sailboat boat in Ala Wai Marina. I mentioned I’d probably be home late and drove early to the race start, in my beloved Porsche 914. I interviewed a few entrants (most journalists called them “weirdo’s”) on the beach, where swimmers flapped their arms to keep warm. Cowman, wearing his furred, horned bison helmet, stood out. Waiting bicycles had candy bars taped to the crossbar. The ABC Wide World of Sports crew was there for their first-time coverage. Offshore, their swim commentator and long-distance swimmer, Diana Nyad, and her cameraman bounced around in a small dinghy.

Dave Scott was first out of the water. When he took off, I did too. He led the way around Oahu, and the ABC crew followed, filming out the back door of a small rented RV. I tucked in behind them, stopping twice: once to purchase a six-pack of Diet Pepsi and a bag of Fritos, the other to jump into the bushes after too much Pepsi.

At the marathon start in downtown Honolulu, Dave changed to running gear. I followed him as far as Kapiolani Park, then parked and waited. I positioned myself at the finish-line telephone pole –– nothing fancy. When Dave ran into view, no one followed. Someone tied a string to the pole, while someone else opposite the pole held the other end. Dave ran through, I got the shot, and interviewed him. Olympic cyclist John Howard was second, grumbling that you can’t “really race” when you have to stop at all the red lights — and twice to weigh in. People finished all through the night. I waited until the first woman, Robin Beck, finished, interviewed her and drove home. That was the beginning of my affair with Ironman.

The race moved to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island in February 1981, due partly to the traffic and stoplights on Oahu. Weighing-in was still mandatory. That year I covered the race from a motorcycle sidecar driven by a cyclist friend. John Howard won.

An accomplished duo: journalist-PR liaison extraordinaire Carol Hogan and her husband, the legendary L.A. County surfer and lifeguard Bob Hogan

In August 1981, after covering the Transpac sailboat race, Bob and I took a 65-day, 2,800-mile cross-country bike tour across the United States, from Portland, Oregon, to Boston. Our first grandchild, Dan, was born just before we crossed the Big Horn Mountains in Montana. We returned to Hawaii in late November and I went back to work as the outdoor reporter.

In February 1982, with my bike as transportation, I flew to Kona to cover Ironman. I had often joked that covering the race was as mentally and physically exhausting as doing it. You never knew who would win, had to be everywhere at the same time, and if anything could happen, it usually did. I usually had a lot of requests for coverage from various magazines. Meeting their needs meant being on the course all day and far into the evening. I always looked for new angles to report.

As the day began, I observed a teeny young Japanese lady whiz by on her bicycle and also noticed that Walt Stack, 74, was still racing. I had 12 writing assignments that year. Hmmm, I thought and went out on the course.

Scott Tinley was close to finishing first. I drove into town, shot the finish and interviewed him, then returned to Kalanianaole Highway. An unknown, Julie Moss, was leading the women’s race, with J. David’s team member Kathleen McCartney behind her. At the appropriate time, I drove into town, positioning myself near the finish line.

Where I chose to stand –– almost on the finish line –– was pure luck!

When Julie crawled around the corner into view, I was mesmerized. Watching her struggling to stand was agonizing, her collapses horrifying, her crawl painful to photograph. But that was my job. I watched history being made through the camera lens. Immediately after collapsing on the finish line, Julie was rushed to the medical tent. No interviews allowed. So I didn’t interview her then, and for the thirty-six years since, have never talked to her face-to-face about that day or her finish. We’ve connected by telephone and Facebook once or twice over the years, but that’s about it. Meanwhile, the photo has been published in dozens of media outlets.

Post-race, I remained in Kona to finish my assignments, and also biked to Waimea­­ to cover a Mauna Kea ski meet. A round trip of 100 miles, it became a pedaling meditation on whether or not to race. When I returned to Kona, I had committed to racing the following October. I was 48, had just finished a major bike ride, and could swim. Hmmmm.

“If you’re doing it, I am too,” Bob said.

We signed up for October ’82. For eight months, we trained relentlessly: with swim coach Jan Prins at the University of Hawaii, with Max Telford’s long-distance running group, and with The Bike Club racing group. On race day, I was ready; the oldest woman to date to enter an Ironman. I surprised myself by winning third place in my division. Bob was fourth in his. We were elated. Our daughter Sharri shot my photos, as I still had writing assignments. Our son Rob, his wife and our grandson were on hand to watch.

The following year, we raced the October 1983 Ironman with Rob. He became so enamored with Ironman, he entered it for the next eight years. Bob and I stopped racing Ironman, but my public relations company, Ocean Promotion and I, remained physically connected with the event until the late 90s, the final two years as press room coordinator.

I’m thrilled that I was able to observe history in the making and proud to have played a part in the growth of a sport that brought me so much pleasure. Knowing that it has made an impact on the growth popularity of Ironman, I try to protect its use as a historical document. The photograph itself is copyrighted, and I protect its publication in the media –– no National Inquirer folks need apply. Sometimes it’s “borrowed” and used by bloggers or writers who haven’t contacted me first. Wherever possible, I contact them and ask them to take it off their page.

I’m truly excited to return to Kona to celebrate Ironman’s 40th anniversary and watch Julie race. She’s been gracious to a fault about the use of her photo and has turned her “Agony of Defeat” into an amazingly positive life lesson for herself and others. I have a feeling this will be Julie’s year to cross the finish line. She’s earned it..

It’s been a busy and frenetic last two months in my personal writing world. This includes promoting When We Were The Boys, the memoir on which I collaborated with musician Stevie Salas; doing final caption touch-ups and proofs for Just Add Water, my biography of autistic international surfing star Clay Marzo available for pre-order on Amazon.com now and coming in Summer from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; pumping out proposals for books on which I am collaborating and/or writing (details forthcoming); and editingInnovation & Tech Today, one of the hippest and most diverse new magazines on newsstands and most digital magazine services.

Music. Surfing. Innovation. Three of my favorite things. Now for those books on running and fitness, a memoir, and the book for business, book, journalistic and personal writers that’s made it through some brainstorm sessions…

My webmaster and former Ananda College student, Chitra Sudhakaran, and I have also been overhauling the WordJourneys.com website — and our mission. Part of that will be our new-look WordJourneys.com blog, which will be unveiled Monday (3-2) featuring a fantastic conversation with author and international speaker Kevin Hines. His book, Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving A Suicide Attempt, offers one of the most painful, difficult, and ultimately inspiring and redemptive memoirs I have ever had the pleasure to edit. When a man jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge and is served up his greater life and soul purpose during the four-second plunge into frigid San Francisco Bay… well, you do the math. It’s an incredible book, in its 20th printing just two years after its release. You are not going to want to miss this interview.

You’ll also see excerpts from Just Add Water and my long-awaited novel, Voices, which will release later in 2015.

5) Perspectives on technology, fitness, health, the arts, education, STEM, and other subjects of interest to writers and creative artists

6) Excerpts from my books, as well as clients

7) Links to pieces and special service offers on WordJourneys.com, and client websites

8) Social Media services of the month (not only the Big Five — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube — but many other sites)

9) An expanded blogroll

10) More opportunities for you to comment and/or guest post

11) Prompts, exercises, and tips from well-published authors, and creative and leadership

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achievers

We’ve always had an eye out for our clients and other writers and creatives on this blog. Now, we will expand that, as part of our mission to showcase the lifestyle of writing and insight of the authors, as well as the final product.

I always find it fascinating to see the lists of books that people read during a calendar year. Besides showing that, yes, some of us still do read many books, these lists also give insight into the feelings, thoughts and areas of interest that crossed our minds during the year. It also gives us a footprint of the paths and journeys we took, or specific subjects on which we focused.

In keeping with the spirit of the day, I ring out 2014 with my own list, which combines books I read for entertainment, book research, personal learning, and sheer pleasure. It’s a low number for me, just 40 books this year (after 60 in 2013), but I also co-wrote a memoir, wrote a biography, finished a novel, edited a half-dozen books, and edited a year of Innovation & Tech Today issues — so it’s been busy on the creative side. My goal for 2015? 60 books read.

After reading this list, send us or post your own list of books read in 2014 – and let’s write and read more in 2015!

The Autistic Brain, by Temple Grandin (Non-Fiction)

The Golden Cat, by Max Brand (Fiction)

What You Want Is in the Limo, by Michael Walker (Memoir)

This Just In, by Bob Schieffer (Memoir)

L.A. Diary, by Sacha Wamsteker (Fiction)

Eat & Run, by Scott Jurek (Memoir)

Finishing the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, by Dale Matson (Non-Fiction)

In this era of extreme tidal changes in the publishing industry, writers, readers and those who love personal author appearances will be happy to know of a great trend: enterprising authors banding together to form group appearances and signings.

The power of the group read, this occurring at Vista Library, site of the North County Literary Cavalcade: Sunset Poets and Hummingbird Review launch. (L-R) Sunset Poets creator and poet Dick Eiden; “Dances With Wolves” author Michael Blake; poet and musician John Doe, of the legendary group X; Charles Redner, Jr; Hummingbird Review publisher & author Charles Redner; fictionist Alwyn Pinnow; and yours truly

AK Patch, the author of “Passage at Delphi,” will appear Feb. 23 to launch the North County Literary Cavalcade series at Vista Library.

Not necessarily. Speaking from San Diego County and nearby areas, I can report that a few enterprising authors are working hard to create more group signings. Kaitlin Rother recently hosted an event at the new San Diego City Library that drew a standing room-only crowd. Author Lin Robinson, one of the most innovative and funniest writers around, is stirring up the waters for a group signing series as well. “My thoughts are to get some local writers together and do something major and newsworthy, maybe in the atrium of the new San Diego library, or across the street in the beautiful Jing Si Café,” Robinson said.

It goes from there. A genre-based group, the Crime Fiction Collective, has been staging group signings for awhile. The La Jolla-based indie bookstore Warwick’s presents not only national authors, but individual and group signings with area authors — in which the author gets a table and signs for several hours on a Sunday afternoon. Very cool.

Group signings are awesome. Several authors appear together, read from their works, perhaps hold a short panel discussion, and then meet, greet and sign. While every author wants (and should have) the stage to themselves, I can tell you that booksellers and libraries love group signings. Why? They put more butts in the seats — and more buyers, or patrons. Readers feel like they’re at an event, and when you attend an event, you want to take the energy and memory of it home with you; hence, buying a book (that’s why motivational speakers and leaders always sell books at the back of the room). Plus, authors receive the dual stimulation of sharing stories from the trenches with other writers, and engaging with their readers.

We will be actively promoting all group signings on this blog, and on the Word Journeys Social Media Network. If you’re an author, band together with a couple other authors, visit your bookstore or library, and set yourself up. It will be much easier than you think — and you will connect eye-to-eye with your audience. Readers and writers, stay tuned.

Speaking of libraries, I’m pleased to announce something I’ve wanted to create for a long time: a monthly literary series. This one even gives a naming nod to the Golden Age of radio and TV! The North County Literary Cavalcade will be hosted by Vista City Library. Reference librarian Kris Jorgensen and I met earlier this week, and laid out the plan for a combination of author signings, group reads, student presentations, panel discussions, topical workshops, open mics and festival events that will involve national and area authors, educators and poets. Best of all, we’re drawing authors from all fiction and non-fiction genres, plus young adult authors, sci-fi writers, and children’s writers. No matter your reading preference, you’re going to be up close and personal with a prominent author at this series.

Vista Library is a great venue: We hosted a pair of Hummingbird Review launches there, drawing large crowds in both cases. The secret? Yep — group reads. We had six to eight readers on each occasion.

Our first event takes place Sunday, February 23, from 3 to 5 p.m. Author AK Patch will present the history and backstory of his new historical adventure thriller, Passage at Delphi.This book brings the famous Greek-Persian War (source of the “300” movie series) into modern-day light, as eyewitnessed by time-traveling professors. They are under the influence of the Greek God Apollo, who worries that today’s civilization will go the way of the Ancient Greeks. If you’re a “300” fan, and pacing the floors waiting for the March 7 premiere of 300: Rise of an Empire, this book will not only feed you, but give you a counter-story filled with excitement and depth.

I’ll also be reading, as Dr. Patch’s warm-up act. Kris Jorgensen and I will co-host the event, and we will also present the schedule of Literary Cavalcade events.

Surf star Clay Marzo, the subject of “Just Add Water”, tearing it up in Maui.

Back in the saddle after two weeks of working in Maui with surf star Clay Marzo on our book, Just Add Water (due out in Summer 2014 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), meeting with musician Stevie Salas to discuss his memoir, When We Were The Boys (due out in Fall 2014 from Rowman & Littlefield), revving up the PR machine for author Allan Patch and his exquisite new novel, Passage at Delphi (due out in late November), and presenting at the Digital Author and Self Publishing Conference in Los Angeles …

… Which is where we’re going with this blog. We’ve heard a lot in the past few years about the rise of e-books, online publishing, and the impending death of the printed book. While the printed book is not going away, at least anytime soon, it is no secret that digital publishing is taking over the industry – and self-publishing is a huge part of it.

One statistic bears it out more than any other: according to R.R. Bowker, which issues the International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) that every book must have to be distributed, the number of ISBNs in circulation has grown in the past 15 years from 900,000 to 32 million. That means there are 32 million different book titles circulating in bookstores, libraries, online booksellers, website stores and wherever you can buy a book.

“Passage at Delphi,” the forthcoming novel by Allan Patch

The vast majority of these books are self-published by digital means. In other words, I write a book, format it into a manuscript, and deliver it to either a print source (such as CreateSpace, the self-publishing arm of Amazon.com) or an e-reader service (Kindle, Kobo, Smashwords, Nook, Diesel, Sony e-reader, Apple, etc.). If Smashwords is involved, the e-books are made available for purchase on hundreds of online booksellers. Obviously, if CreateSpace is involved, you can find them on Amazon.com as a print or Kindle title.

Authors can also turn to any number of companies that offer these services, plus scaled-up services for marketing and distribution (extra charge). There are plenty of choices, but I’ll caution you now – do your due diligence. Some are exceptional, like PublishNext and Balboa Press, while others will gladly take your money, print your books and not worry about the quality of their service. Major publishers now offer self-publishing operations as well; two examples include Author Solutions (Penguin) and Balboa Press (Hay House).

This massive shift into self-publishing, or Indie Authorship as it is called among serious authors, has occurred for two reasons: 1) the technology to produce our own books inexpensively is available through our home computers; and 2) authors want the money from their book sales.

Which begs the question: Don’t authors get paid when their books are published by traditional publishers? Of course – but that book sale is cut many ways. On average, authors receive 10% to 15% of each book sold by a traditional publisher. If they are advanced money to write the book, then they only get their 10% to 15% royalties after the advance earns out – sales top the amount advanced. Given that the traditional publishing world has shrunk to five major publishers, their imprints and the smaller publishers, the opportunities to get published are shrinking by the day. Plus, publishers are more unwilling than ever to take a chance on someone who does not have a viable name and presence in the public eye – which is blatantly unfair to writers with good stories that would certainly be read.

However, that’s life in 2013. This is not our parents’ publishing world. What a shame.

The Indie Author approach puts sales in the writer’s hands. But it also includes the responsibility of marketing, promotion and publicity. That’s where a traditionally published book has a huge advantage. Publishers bring distribution, production and marketing to the table, and they do it with full staffs and decades of work on well-built networks. When you give up 85% to 90% of the cover price of the book, that’s where the money goes. (Well, most of it, but that’s another story that would take a very long day to discuss.)

However, writers who are smart enough (and have the funds) to hire experts in traditional and online book marketing, promotions and publicity (shop carefully; there are plenty of shysters out there) can prosper through digital publishing. After loading their manuscripts onto CreateSpace, PDF files on their computers, and/or the e-book readers, they retain 70% to 100% of sales. Or, you can try my approach, which is to collaborate with a publishing partner (in my case, Tuscany Global Publishing and the very exceptional Brian Wilkes). You write and promote the book, the partner handles the production, loading and fanning out to the online retailers, and you split the money down the middle.

Then there’s the world of hybrid authorship, which is where I reside. Agents and traditional publishers are getting used

How the digital world has opened it up! The options are many. More and more good writers are capitalizing on them. Chances are, you own plenty of books by Indie Authors on your bookshelves or e-readers, and don’t even know it. Nor does it matter. What matters is how good the book is. That’s the beauty of digital publishing…

… and why this past weekend’s Digital Authors and Self Publishing Conference in LA was so valuable. Hats off to conference director Tony Todaro: he knows how to present diverse conferences that nail the pulse we feel on the front lines of this shapeshifting industry! Publishing experts such as legendary literary agent Ashley Grayson, agents Claire Gerus and Toni Lopopolo, CD Baby and Book Baby CEO Brian Felsen, science fiction icon (and one-time Star Trek writer) David Gerrold, and author-marketers Linton Robinson, Karen Angermeyer, Gary Philips, Steven Booth and yours truly, were among those discussing this crucial subject. The workshops were packed, the insights riveting and eye-opening, and the information invaluable.

You’ll hear plenty more from me in this blog about digital publishing, especially since I work with it all the time for my clients, and my own work. And that’s about to expand, greatly, but I’ll save that announcement for November…

During this barnburner of a writing year, I took on the editor’s position at a publication that brings my loves of innovation (all entrepreneurs should bne innovators!) and technology together with digital publishing — Information & Technology Today Magazine, published by my friend Charles Warner’s company, Innovation Properties Worldwide, out of Denver, CO.

Our premiere digital issue came out last week, and is available on Zinio and Apple newsstands. To get the ball of subscribers and readers rolling, it’s on sale for just 99 cents on Zinio. You can read it on your desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Its digital enhancements really come to life on tablets.

Innovation & Technology Today grew from The Legacy Series Magazine, which I edited last fall and which made a big splash at MacWorld/iWorld 2013. The areas of innovation and technology not only continue to grow rapidly, but they serve as the undercurrent of both business development and the way of ingenuity and independence that has come to define doing business in the U.S. Consequently, our magazine is fun, colorful, full of great links – and highly informative.

The magazine features a rich mix of editorial. This includes regular features and updates on green technology, digital publishing, social networking, communications, security, education, women in technology and new products. We also sprinkled the magazine with metrics, statistics and infographics, again keeping the emphasis on enjoyable reading. For this issue’s women in technology piece, written by Lisa Lunney, we focused on two of the world’s most powerful women, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, author of the runaway bestseller Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.

The core of each issue is the theme-based feature section. We are taking about one-third of the editorial well to deeply address business areas that are either booming or of major consequence to lives and our economic futures. For the Spring-Summer issue currently on sale, we focused on Smart Home Technology. For the upcoming Summer-Fall issue, we will switch to Sports & Medical Technology. Our Fall-Winter issue will showcase Green Technology & Energy.

In Innovation & Technology, we continued a series of conversations with leaders and innovators that we started with The Legacy Series Magazine. This time around, we interviewed Al Choperena of the smart home technology provider Smartenit, John Clements of Mitsubishi Electric, Michael Sykes of Enertia Homes, and a pair of authors with major street cred, Twitter Revolution co-author Warren Whitlock and App Nation author Brad Adams of Sunstone Publishing Group, who helps small businesses customize their apps – a major growth area for the next several years. Our guest contributor this issue was Chris Voss, one of Forbes Magazine’s Top 50 Social Media Influencers in the U.S.

I had more fun with this project than with any magazine work in years. I dove headlong into the world of digital publishing, and more specifically, of how to enhance content to animate it for the reader. What we need to remember about working with online content or digital publications (books, magazines, etc.) is that readers want an experience. They don’t merely want the same word-reading exercise they would get from print books or magazines. They want to be taken further.

That’s where links came in. I made it a point to choose our links selectively in Innovation & Technology Today, because, let’s face it – when you choose this title for a publication, you’d better be forward-thinking with your application of digital publishing technology! So we embedded videos, infographics that move, articles from unusual or under-utilized sources that took readers deeper and broader from the central piece, photo galleries that further tell the story, and also pathways to chat rooms, social networking groups or resources where they can interact with the newsmakers, movers and shakers mentioned in the pieces.

Our goal is simple: if you read the magazine, we want you to receive a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, educational and enligtening experience. Enjoyable-Entertaining-Educational-Enlightening. Those should be the 4E’s of any digital publishing endeavor that moves beyond Smashwords-produced e-books, which are text-only.

The Memorial Day Weekend is finally here! One more day of yet another crazy cycle of writing, editing and consulting, and then it’s up the coast to Ventura to run in the Mountains to Beaches Half-Marathon – my favorite distance. This is a lick-your-chops race – slight net downhill, mostly flat, starts at 6 a.m., weather 55 degrees and low clouds, finishes on the beach promenade … everyone out there who races knows the right word for these conditions: Perfect.

But now, a recap of the past two weeks, which will also serve as a commercial for the incredible authors with whom I have the pleasure of working (this work is labor intensive, but is it ever fun!):

Ray Manzarek performing in Milan, 2012

• First of all, thanks for the music to Ray Manzarek and Trevor Bolder, both of whom passed away from cancer this week. I am a huge Doors fan, and have been since “Light My Fire” first hit radio in 1967. Their music and Jim Morrison’s poetry influenced me greatly, and Manzarek paved the way for rock keyboardists everywhere. He also produced the “Los Angeles” album for X, whose bass player/singer, John Doe, was featured in the spring issue of The Hummingbird Review. Meanwhile, Bolder was the bass player on David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album, and, for the past 30 years, with Uriah Heep. My friend Robert Munger and I saw Trevor play with Uriah Heep two summers ago. I mean, we saw him. We stood five feet away and had low-tone deafness for a couple days as a result. The great rock band in heaven just became stronger.

• Just got added to the faculty of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference, which will be held June 14-16 at L.A. Valley College. It will feature workshops and panels for four levels of writers – aspiring, active, professional, and screenplay. A half dozen literary agents, editors and plenty of writers will be on hand for this informational and networking fiesta. I’ll be sitting on panels for Ghostwriting, Beyond the First Draft, and Rewriting. Will be selling my books Shades of Green, The Write Time,The Champion’s Way, and the latest edition of The Hummingbird Review as well. Really stoked to be part of this conference. If you’re not busy, do come up – prices are very reasonable, and the schedule of events is awesome.

• Speaking of which, I’ll have two new books coming out this summer through Tuscany Publishing: The Best of Word Journeys Blogs, Vol. 1; and my newest poetry-essay collection, Backroad Melodies. Will keep you posted.

• I’ve reached terms with Houghton Mifflin on Just Add Water, a combination memoir/biography of freestyle surfing great Clay Marzo and his life with Asperger syndrome. The book is tentatively scheduled for a Summer 2014 release, and offers a deep profile from inside the skin of Asperger, and how Clay has become one of the very best surfers in the world. Fun “creation” story to this one: my good friend, Mitch Varnes, ran the idea of this biography by me a few months ago. It sounded like a sure winner. It was. The last time Mitch and I brainstormed a publication, in 1993, we emerged with One Giant Leap for Mankind, the 25th anniversary tribute to the Apollo 11 mission and all the astronauts on the Apollo missions. There’s a lesson here: need to connect with Mitch on book ideas more than once every 20 years!

• I’m assisting musician-producer Stevie Salas with his memoir, When We Were The Boys, remembering his days as lead guitarist on Rod Stewart’s Out of Order Tour – and how they shaped and influenced his remarkable 25-year career that followed. I first knew Stevie in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, when he played for one of North San Diego County’s hottest cover bands, This Kids. Now, he plays and hangs with the stars (wait: Stevie is a star), having just spent a few days with his boys, the Rolling Stones, while in Southern California. Stevie’s collaborations include work with: Mick Jagger, Justin Timberlake, Daughtry, Terence Trent d’Arby, Bootsy Collins, Miles Davis, Sass Jordan, Bernard Fowler, Glenn Hughes, Matt Sorum … if you know pop and rock music, you know these names. While backstage with the Stones, Stevie dished up a special request for me – a photo of he and Stones backing singer Lisa Fischer, one of the most powerful and sultry singers anywhere. Stevie is not only a great songwriter who has sold more than 2 million solo albums, but a lively prose writer, too, as you will see next year. I’m licking my chops over working on this book, which is about to be shopped by my agent, Dana Newman.

• Just finished editing Home Free, which will be one of the most highly anticipated and well-marketed travel narratives of 2014. It is also one of my favorite editing jobs ever. Author Lynne Martin is going to win over the world with her book, in which she shares she and her husband Tim’s hopscotch life in various global destinations, with all the sights, sounds and travel tidbits you’d expect in a good travel story. However, there’s more: her personality. Get ready to buckle your seat belt for a full-on, humor-filled romp, mixed with outstanding travel writing and enough tense, serious moments to remind us that Lynne and Tim are making their homes in these places, not just going in and out as tourists. Sourcebooks has moved up the release date to April 1, 2014, to capitalize on media coverage and national talk shows – on which Lynne will surely shine.

• Also wrapped the first issue of Innovation & Technology Today, an edgy, front-line digital magazine on the latest technological additions to our world, and the people envisioning and creating these products and services. We focused on smart homes for this issue, while our summer issue will be right up my alley – sports & medical technology. Besides editing the magazine, I also write the Education column – another pet topic. Digital magazines are a blast, for many reasons … that will be the subject of a future blog. The issue will be available through Zinio and Apple digital newsstands June 5.

• Keeping this busy month of words going, also just finished working on Gary Deason’s fine novel, The Columbian Prophecy, which answers the question: what would happen if an extreme, crazed cell of the Catholic Church tied Columbus’ voyages to America to the re-discovery of the Garden of Eden – and determined that to be the End of Days and their time to take over? This is a great story that interweaves Columbian history as you haven’t seen it before, the battles indigenous South American peoples have faced for 500+ years, and the trouble a father and his two daughters get into for stumbling onto the hornets’ nest occupied by these crazed monks. Enough said. Deason is working on agent representation now, so you’ll see this book in the not-too-distant future.

‘A Taste of Eternity’ author Martha Halda

• Finally, it seems the author interviews on this blog are proving to be a big hit. My recent interviews with Losing My Religion author Jide Familoni, It’s Monday Only In Your Mind author Michael Cupo, A Taste of Eternity author (and my sweetheart) Martha Halda, and Island Fever and Storm Chasers author Stephen Gladish resulted in the greatest number of daily reads in the 5 ½-year history of this blog. (Side note: Storm Chasers was set in Oklahoma’s Tornado Alley; how apropo is that novel today??) So, to follow: Guests in June will include David Abrams, author of the bestselling novel Fobbit; 2013 International Book Award recipient Matthew Pallamary; Sword & Satchel trilogy author Claudette Marco; and Australian therapist Leo Willcocks, author of De-Stress to Impress, one of the most in-depth and proactive books on dealing with and rising above stress I’ve ever seen (and I’ve read a lot of them).

So that’s the past two weeks. I wish you all a fun Memorial Day weekend, remember what we’re celebrating and who we’re honoring, and make it a point to write or do something creative. Outside as well as inside. The next two-week cycle starts Tuesday …